What do you get when you’ve got ghosts, girls, guides, gab, good grub, and great company?
A book signing.
Last Friday, we all loaded up in the van — Martin, me, the girls, Jaz, and our cellar dwellar Janah — and drove west to visit with my friend, Stacey Graham, during the book signing for her latest release, “The Girls’ Ghost Hunting Guide.”
We were connected via Facebook by our mutual friend, Jason, who is also a writer and who knows Stacey through his writing/creative people circles. Stacey and I both live in the D.C. metropolitan area, she is the ranking blogger over at Army of Ermas, and Jason thought we’d get along pretty well.
He was right.
So for two years, Stacey and I have followed each other’s tweets and updates daily. But we never met.
Yet, when I learned about her book signing, I knew it was time to meet.
It was like seeing an old friend again. The girls took to her right away. Dare I say, they were enchanted.
Of course, she did have candy and offered to make them ghost pendulums out of Lifesavers.Miss C was so impressed that Stacey is a real author. She kept looking at the book, the words on the pages, and then back at Stacey. I could see the wheels in her head turning as Stacey explained the writing process, working with an agent, and a publisher.
The shelves in our house are filled with the books Miss C’s produced on her own, written and illustrated by her own hand, and lovingly stapled along the edges.That girl is making plans.
Of course, Stacey signed our copy of her book, and then promptly took Jaz for some snuggling as the rest of us hit up the refreshment table. (Our family never turns away free food.) The book signing was held in a gallery built inside an old firehouse, so there was artwork, music, and crafts to admire, too.
Lola was getting restless, though, so we made an early exit to the park next door, where there was a live band playing some Beach Boys tunes in the gazebo.
Eventually, Stacey joined us after her book-signing wrapped up.
Her book is awesome.